Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

When the blue planet as round as a dew—the third planet of a peaceful, quiet galaxy—gradually appeared in front of Li Yao in a haze again, he was no longer surprised and confused at all. Instead, he was full of relief and expectation after the long wait.

He felt that he was a wanderer that had roamed the sea of stars for thousands of years and that he was about to be embraced by the warm and familiar home again.

Earth, the mysterious homeland that haunted Li Yao’s soul!

Did it really exist in a certain space zone in the middle of the three thousand Sectors or somewhere beyond? Was it a certain mysterious, indescribable being beyond the three-dimensional world? Was it nonexistent and just an illusion of Li Yao himself, a malicious joke that certain fiends hundreds of times stronger than the extraterrestrial devils played on him?

Are you really there, Earth?

What are the so-called ‘earthlings’ exactly?

Li Yao stood above Earth in the middle of the ocean of stars. The brightness from the billions of stars constituted his clear, glass-like body.

He opened his arms toward Earth. His thoughts turned into thousands of magnificent shooting stars that landed on every corner of Earth.

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

Thousands of pictures on Earth were unfolded deep inside his soul like an infinite scroll.

The modern metropolises ablaze with lights, the skyscrapers that rose high into the sky, the lively streets that were packed with cars and pedestrians, the strong armies that had developed stubbornly even without the spiritual energy, and the healthy, smiling faces exactly the same like the people in the Star Glory Federation.

Earth. My Earth…

Li Yao could not hold back his desire to extend his hands through the atmosphere, the clouds, the overwhelming high-rises, and the crowds to touch the children on Earth who were playing in the parks carefreely.

Some of the children were playing on seesaws. Some climbed on the community body-building facilities designed for seniors. The scene activated something deep inside Li Yao’s memories, making him realize that he seemed to have experienced similar days in the past.

However, before his telepathic thoughts reached the children on Earth, all the pictures were burnt and blackened. Ugly black spots appeared at the center first, before they were all on fire, as if they were colorful photos whose backs were set ablaze by lighters.

Li Yao widened his eyes and uttered soundless roars, trying to remind the innocent children that their world was being corrupted by fire.

But it was useless. His throat was empty, and his vocal cords became a black hole that swallowed all his anxiety, panic, and fury. He could only watch the children turning into skeletons, the carrousels and seesaws burning to ash, and the skyscrapers twisting and collapsing, and the glorious cities razed to the ground.

The furious flames seemed to be a monster with ten thousand tentacles that closely enveloped the entire Earth, draining the vigorous blue planet and reducing it to a dying land mixed with dark red and dim yellow. It was like the vitality of a succulent red apple was pumped out within a moment, and the fruit was forced to wither, constrict, and deteriorate!

The core of the rotten apple struggled and revolved slowly.

“Run, Li Yao. Run as fast as you can. The Vulture Plan has completely failed. You are the only one who can run away now. Run to the desolate lands at the edge of the cosmos!”

Li Yao heard the voice of an old man who shouted in utmost pain and frustration.

Then, he heard himself angrily roaring, “No, the Vulture Plan hasn’t failed yet. There is still hope. We can’t give up just like that!”

“It is doomed and hopeless now. We don’t even stand one billionth of a chance!” the old man replied. “It is too strong and too dark. Nobody can destroy it. For thousands of years, nobody has ever escaped its dragnet! This time, we have sacrificed so many people and burnt all our strength to break a tiny gap, allowing us to launch the weakest soul out through the gap. This is already the best we can do!

“So, run now. Live carefreely and ordinarily in an unknown corner at the edge of the cosmos. Live a real life for all of us!”

“No. Let go of me. Let go of me now. I can’t just run away!” Li Yao heard himself shrieking. “I swear that even if you launch me to the edge of the cosmos, to the desolate space that is not illuminated by any stars, I will come back one day and carry out the Vulture Plan to completely destroy it!”

“It’s impossible!” the old man’s voice replied with bitter laughter. “So many magnificent beings have failed. This has been a trap since the very beginning. It intentionally lured us to activate the Vulture Plan so that it could fish us up once and for all!

“Now, us defeated soldiers are about to be completely eradicated. You are the only one who is weak enough to pass through the holes in the impregnable web that it has established. The fire of your soul is so feeble that you are essentially just an ordinary person. Just give up your fantasies!

“Run now. Run away from its control. Forget everything about Earth and live a free life at the edge of the cosmos. This is your destiny and… our last hope!”

“No. No. Never!” Li Yao heard that he was almost crying. “I may be an ordinary person, but so what? I can train myself hard until I am stronger than any god or devil in the entire universe. Then, I will be back and complete the Vulture Plan to destroy it!”

“You can’t train yourself!” The old man’s voice suddenly became stern. “Didn’t I tell you just now? Launching your soul to the edge of the cosmos is like darting a full balloon into the ocean. The seawater will naturally reject you and try to blow you back!

“Unless the ‘balloon’ is as tiny as a molecule or an atom, you will never have a slim chance of being embraced by the foreign universe!

“Remember my words, Li Yao. Conceal your radiance, abandon your pride, and forget all the impractical illusions. Just live a peaceful life. To some extent, we will have defeated it if you can do so.”

“As long as I can still let out the tiniest bit of light, I will never volunteer to turn it off!” Li Yao heard himself shrieking in utmost resolution. “I get it now. If I remain the weakest and dimmest form and live under the identity of an ‘ordinary person’, it is possible that I will live in peace with the new world at the edge of the cosmos. But if I begin to ‘expand’ into a huge ‘balloon’, I will be rejected by the foreign universe and even be ‘blown away’, am I right?

“That’s exactly what I want!

“I can train myself with the rejection of the foreign world. The more rejective it is and the more dangers and difficulties it throws my way, the more intense and the faster my training will be, and the more likely I will grow up like you—no, into something that is far beyond you and strong enough to destroy it!”

“It’s impossible!” the old man’s voice replied anxiously. “You will die. You will be obliterated when you emanate your first brilliance. You are… an ordinary person at most. No matter how you train yourself, it won’t be enough for you to challenge it, much less destroy it!”

“How do you know that if I don’t give it a shot?”

Li Yao sensed that his voice and his will were getting more and more resolute, condensing into something that was denser than a neutron star.

“If the strength of myself is far from enough, I will find comrades who share the same destiny at the edge of the cosmos, and I will establish an even greater force. One day, I will return to this place with the most magnificent army in the entire sea of stars!”

“No… Not good!” The old man’s voice sounded as if somebody grabbed him by his neck. “It is here. It has begun to corrupt us. It has discovered the gap and is blocking it quickly! There is no time now. The gap is shrinking. Even the soul of an ordinary person cannot be launched in its entirety now. We can only… Launch! Launch! Launch now!”

Li Yao felt that Earth, which looked like a rotten apple core, moved away from him fast, or maybe it was him who had turned into waves more mysterious than light and escaped from Earth as quickly as possible.

When the apple core was completely consumed by the dark universe, and all the shining stars around were all gone, Li Yao heard the last sigh from the old man, as if he were saying, “Good luck… Vulture.”

…

Li Yao woke up again, only to find himself soaked in the middle of certain warm, pure, blue liquids.

The memory fragments about Earth all cracked like the bubbles under the sunlight.

However, the rainbow contained inside turned into tiny ripples and was deeply etched into his soul.

Earth and the Star Glory Federation at the edge of the cosmos, the worlds that were completely different, were gradually overlapping and unifying. He was only one step away from the final truth.

Shaking his head, which was as heavy as a mountain, Li Yao realized that he was in the middle of an enormous bubble, covered in a thin layer of ivory film. The film was brimming with holes that allowed it to absorb energy from the high-energy drugs around and press the energy into his capillary vessels and limbs by negative pressure.

It had to be some sort of extremely advanced medical cabin. Judging from the size and the primeval runes carved on the wall of the cabin, it was likely not to have been designed for human beings. It was probably a super-large medical cabin excavated from Kunlun that had been specially prepared for the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan.

At this moment, there was only one person other than himself in such an enormous medical cabin.

Her hair as red as fire dispersed in the blue liquids but still emitted the brilliance of pride. Her charming face was a little bit tough, but it was mostly dissolved by the childlike expression while she was sleeping. Her perfect body was covered in the ivory film, which was as thin as the wing of a cicada, and her graceful body figure could not have been better highlighted. Curled up like a baby, she held her ankles and revolved slowly in the blue ocean.

Sensing Li Yao’s eyes that were even more scorching than a solar storm, she put on a smile even though she was dreaming. Her eyelashes shivered, and she slightly opened her eyes, with a bit of expectation and unease in her eyes.

Deep inside the blue ocean, Li Yao and Ding Lingdang, the man and the woman who had not seen each other for a hundred years, looked at each other quietly.